From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deaf-mute is a term which was used
historically, by hearing people, to identify a person who was both
deaf
and could not speak. The
term continues to be used to refer to deaf people, mainly within a
historical context, to indicate deaf people who cannot speak, or
have some degree of speaking ability, but choose not to speak
because of the negative or unwanted attention atypical voices
sometimes attract.

In the past deaf-mute was regarded as a socially
acceptable term, usually to describe deaf people who use a signed
language, but in modern times, the term is frequently viewed as
derogatory. The preferred term today is simply "deaf"[1].

Additionally, it is sometimes used to refer to other hearing
people in jest, to chide, or to invoke an image of someone who
refuses to employ common sense or who is unreliable. "Deaf and
dumb,"[2]
"semi-deaf" and "semi-mute" are other historic references to deaf
people. Of these latter examples, only "deaf and dumb" prevails as
a reference.

There are connotations of insensitivity to deaf people
concerning these terms of reference and for this reason the
prevailing terms are generally looked upon as insulting, inaccurate
or socially and politically incorrect.[3] From
antiquity (as noted in the Code of Hammurabi) until recent
times,[4] the
terms "deaf-mute" and "deaf and dumb" were even considered
analogous to "idiot" by some hearing people.

In Europe and western society, most deaf people are taught to
speak with varying outcomes of ability or degrees of fluency. The
simple identity of "deaf" has been embraced by the community of signing deaf
people since the foundations of public deaf education in the
18th century and remains the preferred term of reference or
identity for many years.

Deaf-muteness in art and
literature

Stephen King's novel, The
Stand, features a main character named Nick Andros who is
referred to as "deaf-mute." Though "deaf-mutes" almost always have
a voice, King interpreted the term literally and made Nick unable
to vocalize but he could hear.

The phrase is used in The Catcher in the Rye to
indicate someone who does not speak his mind, and hears nothing, in
effect becoming isolated from the world.

Chief Bromden, in One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest, is believed by all to be deaf-mute, but in
fact he can hear and speak; he does not let anyone know this
because, as he grew up, he was not spoken to (making him "deaf")
and ignored (making him "mute").

In the film Babel, the character Chieko Wataya,
played by Rinko
Kikuchi, is a deaf teenage girl who is referred to several
times in the English subtitles as being a deaf-mute (although it is
unclear how accurately the subtitles translate the Japanese
reference to the deaf character).

Wilkie Collins' 1854 novel, Hide and Seek contains a character,
Madonna, who becomes deaf after a circus accident as a child and
subsequently stops speaking.

The rock opera Tommy by The Who centers around the life of a boy named
Tommy Walker who is effectively deaf, dumb and blind, due to a
psychological block caused by a traumatic event in his childhood,
but is later miraculously healed.

See also

References

^
Moore, Matthew S. & Levitan, Linda (2003). For Hearing
People Only, Answers to Some of the Most Commonly Asked Questions
About the Deaf Community, its Culture, and the "Deaf Reality",
Rochester, New York: Deaf Life Press, ISBN 0-9634016-3-7

^Barquist, Barbara; Barquist, David (1987).
"The Early Years". in Haley, Leroy. The Summit of Oconomowoc:
150 Years of Summit Town. Summit History Group.
p. 47.

From LoveToKnow 1911

DEAF AND DUMB. 1 The term " deaf " is
frequently applied to those who are deficient in hearing power in any degree, however slight, as
well as to people who are unable to detect the loudest sounds by
means of the auditory organs. It is impossible to draw a hard and
fast line between the deaf and the hearing at any particular point. For the
purposes of this article, however, that denotation which is generally accepted by
educators of the deaf may be given to the term. This makes it refer
to those who are so far handicapped as to be incapable of
instruction by the ordinary means of the ear in a class of those possessing normal hearing.
Paradoxical though it may seem, it is yet true to say that "
dumbness " in our sense of the word does not, strictly speaking,
exist, though the term " dumb " may, for all practical purposes,
fairly be applied to many of the deaf even after they are supposed
to have learnt how to speak. Oral teachers now confess that it is
not worth while to try to teach more than a large percentage of the
deaf to speak at all. We are not concerned with aphasia, stammering or such inability to articulate
as may be due to malformation of the vocal organs. In the case of
the deaf and dumb, as these words are generally understood,
dumbness is merely the result of ignorance in the use of the voice, this ignorance being due to the
deafness. The vocal organs are perfect. The deaf man can laugh,
shout, and in fact utter any and every sound that the normal person can. But he does not
speak English (if that happens to be his nationality) for the same
reason that a French child does not, which is that he has never
heard it. There is in fact no more a priori reason why an English 1 The two words
are common to Teutonic languages, cf.
Ger. taub and dumm (only in the sense of " stupid
"), Dutch doof and dom; the original meaning
seems to have been dull of perception, stupid, obtuse, and the words
may be ultimately related. The Gr. TucpXos blind, and Ti or, smoke, mist, probably show the same
base.

baby, born in England,
should talk English than that it should. talk any other language.
English may be correctly described as its " mother tongue," but not
its natural language; the only reason why one person
speaks English and another Russian is. that each imitated that particular
language which he heard in infancy. This imitation depends upon the
ability to hear. Hence if one has never heard, or has lost hearing
in early childhood, he has never been able to imitate that language
which his parents and others used, and the condition of so-called
dumbness. is added to his deafness. From this it follows that if
the sense of hearing be not lost till the child has learnt to speak
fluently, the ability to speak is unaffected by the calamity of
deafness, except that after many years the voice is likely to
become high-pitched, or too guttural, or peculiar in some other
respect, owing to the absence of the control usually exercised by
the ear. It also follows that, to a
certain extent, the art of speech can be taught the deaf person
even though he were born deaf. Theoretically, he is capable of
talking just as well as his hearing brother, for the organs of
speech are as perfect in one as in the other, except that they
suffer from lack of exercise in the case of the deaf man.
Practically, he can never speak perfectly, for even if he were made
to attempt articulation as soon as he is discovered
to be deaf, the fact that the ear, the natural guide of the voice,
is useless, lays upon him a handicap which can never be wiped out. He: can
never hear the tone of his teacher's voice nor of his own; he can
only see small and, in many instances, scarcely discernible
movements of the lips, tongue, nose, cheeks and throat in those who are endeavouring to teach
him to speak, and he can never hope to succeed in speech through
the instrumentality of such. unsatisfactory appeals to his eye as
perfectly as the hearing child can with the ideal adaptation of the voice
to the ear. Sound appeals to the
ear, not the eye, and those who have to rely upon. the latter to
imitate speech must suffer by comparison.

Deafness then, in our sense, means the incapacity to be
instructed by means of the ear in the normal way, and dumbness
means only that ignorance of how to speak one's mother tongue which
is the effect of the deafness.

Of such deaf people many can hear sound to some extent.. Dr Kerr
Love quotes several authorities (Deaf Mutism, pp. 58 ff.)
to show that 50 or 60% are absolutely deaf, while 25% can. detect
loud sounds such as shouting close to the ear, and the rest. can
distinguish vowels or even words. He himself thinks that not more
than 15 or 20% are totally deaf - sometimes only 7 or 8%; that
ability to hear speech exists in about one in four, while ten or
fifteen in each hundred are only semi-deaf. He rightly warns
against the use of tuning forks or other instruments held on the
bones of the head as tests of hearing, because the vibration which
is felt, not heard, may very often be mistaken for sound.

Dr Edward M. Gallaudet, the president of the College for the
Deaf in Washington,
D.C., U.S.A., suggests the following terms for use in dividing the
whole class of the deaf into its main sections, though it is
obviously impossible to split them up into perfectly defined
subdivisions, where, as a matter of fact, you have each degree of
deafness and dumbness shading into the next: the speaking
deaf, the semi-speaking deaf, the mute deaf (or deaf-mute), the speaking semi-deaf, the
mute semi-deaf, the hearing mute and the
hearing semi-mute. He points out that the last two classes
are usually persons of feeble mental power. We should exclude these
altogether from the list, since their hearing is, presumably,
perfect, and should add the semi-speaking semi-deaf before
the mute semi-deaf. This would give two main divisions - those wha
cannot hear at all, and those who have partial hearing - with three
subsections in each main division - those who speak, those who have
partial speech and those who do not speak at all. Where the hearing
is perfect it is paradoxical to class a person with the deaf, and
the dumbness in such a case is due (where there is no malformation
of the vocal organs) to inability of the mind to pay attention to,
and imitate, what the ear really hears. In such cases this mental
weakness is generally shown in other ways besides that of not
hearing sounds. Probably no sign will. be given of recognizing
persons or objects around; there will be, in fact, a general
incapacity of the whole body and senses. It is incorrect to
designate such persons as deaf and feeble-minded or deaf and
idiotic, because in many cases their organs of hearing are as
perfect as are other organs of their body, and they are no more
deaf than blind, though they may pay no attention to what they hear
any more than to what they see. They are simply weak in intellect, and this is
shown by the disuse of any and all of their senses; hence it is
incorrect to classify them according to one, and one only, of the
evidences of this mental weakness.

Extent of Deafness

The following table shows the number of deaf and dumb persons in
the United
Kingdom at successive censuses: - From this we find that the
proportion of deaf and dumb to the population has been as follows:
- There has, therefore, been on the whole a steady decrease of
those described as " deaf and dumb " in proportion to the
population in Great Britain and Ireland. But in the census for 1901, in addition to the 15,246
returned as " deaf and dumb " in England and Wales, 18,507 were entered as being " deaf," 2433
of whom were described as having been " deaf from childhood." Mr B.
H. Payne, the principal of the Royal Cambrian Institution, Swansea, makes the following
remarks upon these figures: - " The natural conclusion, of course.
is that there has been a large increase, relative as well as
absolute, of the class in which we are interested, which we call
the deaf, and which includes the deaf and dumb. Indeed, the number,
large as it is, cannot be considered as complete, for the schedules
did not require persons who were only deaf to state their
infirmity, and, though many did so, it may be presumed that more
did not.

" On the other hand, circumstances exist which may reasonably be
held to modify the conclusion that there has been a large relative
increase of the deaf. The spread of education, the development of
local
government, and an improved system of registration, may have had the effect of
procuring fuller enumeration and more appropriate classification
than heretofore, while 1368 persons described simply as dumb, and
who therefore probably belong, not to the deaf, but to the
feeble-minded and aphasic classes, are included in the ' deaf and
dumb ' total. It is also to be noted that some of those who
described themselves as ' deaf ' though not born so may have been
educated in the ordinary way before they lost their hearing, and
are therefore outside the sphere of the operation of schools for
the deaf.

" In connexion with the census of 1891, it has been remarked in the
report of the institution that no provision was made in the
schedules for distinguishing the congenital from the non-congenital
deaf, and that it was desirable to draw such a distinction. To
ascertain the relative increase or decrease of one or the other
section of the class would contribute to our knowledge of the
incidence of known causes of deafness or to the confirmation or
discovery of other causes, and so far indicate the appropriate
measures of prevention, while such an inquiry as that recommended
has, besides, a certain bearing upon educational views.

" The exact number of ' deaf and dumb ' and ' deaf ' children
who are of school age cannot be ascertained from the census tables,
which give the numbers in quinquennial age-groups, while the school
age is seven to sixteen. It is a pity that in this respect the
functions of the census department are not co-ordinated with those
of the Board of Education." Dr John Hitz,the superintendent of
theVoltaBureau for theIncrease of Knowledge Relating to the Deaf,
Washington, D.C.,
U.S.A., gives the number of schools for deaf children, and pupils,
in different countries in 1900 as follows: - Africa.

These figures refer only to deaf children who are actually under
instruction, not to the whole deaf population.

While it is gratifying to find that so much is being done in the
way of educating this class of the community, the number of schools
in most parts of the world is still lamentably inadequate. For
instance, taking the school age as from seven to sixteen, which is
now made compulsory by Act of Parliament in Great Britain,
and assuming that 20% of the deaf population are of that age, as
they are in England, there should be 40,000 deaf pupils under
instruction in India alone,
whereas there are but seventy-three. There are 200,000 deaf of all
ages in India. And what an
enormous total should be in schools in China instead of forty-three ! The whole of
the rest of Asia, with the
exception of Japan, has
apparently not a single school. There must be many thousands of
thousands of deaf (hundreds of thousands, if not thousands of
thousands of whom are of school age) in that continent, unless
indeed they are destroyed, which is not impossible. What are we to
say of Africa, where only Too
pupils are being taught; of South America, with its paltry 200, and
Australia's 300 ? To come to Europe itself, Russia should have many times more pupils than
her 1700. Even in Great Britain the education of the deaf was not
made compulsory till 1893, and there are many still evading the law
and growing up uneducated. Mr Payne of Swansea estimated (Institution Report,
1903-1904) from the 1901 census, that there must be approximately
204 deaf of school age in South Wales and Monmouthshire,
while only 144 were accounted for in all the schools in that
district according to Dr Hitz's statistics.

Dr Kerr Love (Deaf Mutism, p. 217) gives the following
table, which shows the number of deaf people in proportion to the
population in the countries named: Switzerland .

According to a tabular statement of British and Colonial
schools, June 1899, the proportion of those born deaf to those who
lost hearing after birth was, at that time and in those countries,
2126 to 1251, as far as returns had been made. Several schools had,
however, failed to give statistics. These figures show a proportion
of nearly 59% congenitally deaf persons to over 41% whose deafness
is acquired. Professor Fay, whose monumental work, Marriages of
the Deaf in America, deserves particular attention, mentions
(p. 38) that of 23,931 persons who attended American schools for
the deaf up to the year 1890, 9842, or 41%, were reported as
congenitally deaf, and 14,089, or 59%, as adventitiously deaf, -
figures which exactly reverse those just quoted. The classification
of deafness acquired in infancy with congenital deafness by some other
authorities (giving rise to the rather absurd term ”
toto-congenital ” to describe the latter) is unscientific. There is
reason for the opinion that the noncongenital, even when hearing
has been lost in early infancy, acquire language better, and it is
a mistake from any point of view to include them in the born
deaf.

1 The figures for England, Scotland and Ireland, according to the 1901
census, are different and have been given above.

Other statistics vary very much as to the proportion of born
deaf, some being as low as a quarter, and some as high as
three-quarters, of the whole class. We can only say, speaking of
both sides of the Atlantic, and counterbalancing one period with
another, that the general average appears to be about 50% for each.
Probably the percentage varies in different places for definite
reasons, which we shall now briefly consider.

Causes of Deafness

1. Pre-Natal. - A small percentage of these is due, it
seems, to malformation of some portion of the auditory apparatus.
Another percentage is known to represent the children of the
intermarriage of blood relations. Dr Kerr Love (Deaf
Mutism, p. 117) gives statistics from thirteen British
institutions which show that on a general average at least 8% of
the congenitally deaf are the offspring of such marriages. Besides
this, little is known. Beyond all doubt a much larger percentage of
deaf children are the offspring of marriages in which one or both
partners were born deaf than of ordinary marriages. But inquiries
into such phenomena have generally been directed towards tracing
deafness and not consanguinity, or at least the inquirer
has rarely troubled to make sure whether the grandparents or
great-grandparents on either side were relations or not. Such
investigations rarely go beyond ascertaining if the parents were
related to each other, though we have proof that a certain tendency
towards any particular abnormality may not exhibit itself in every
generation of the family in question. To give an illustration,
suppose that G is a deaf man. Several inquirers may trace back to
the preceding generation F, and to the grandparents E, and even to
the great-grandparents D, in search of an ancestor who is deaf, and
such they may discover in the third generation D. But probably not
one of these several inquirers will ask G if any of his
grandparents or greatgrandparents married a cousin, for instance,
though they may ask if his father did. To continue this
hypothetical case, the investigators will again trace back along
the family tree to generations C,
B and A in search of an original deaf ancestor, on whose
shoulders they seek to lay the blame of both D's and G's deafness.
Not finding any such, they will again content themselves with
asking if D's parents (generation C) were blood relations or not,
and, receiving an answer in the negative, desist from further
inquiry in this direction, assuming that D's deafness is the
original cause of G's deafness. They do not, we fear, inquire if
any grandparents or great-grandparents (hearing people) were
related, with the same persistency as they ask if any were deaf.
The search for deafness is pushed through several generations, the
search for consanguinity is only extended to one
generation. Perhaps if it were carried further, it would be
discovered that A married his niece, and there lay the secret of
the deafness in both D and G. In other words, the deafness in D is
not the cause of that in G, but the deafness in both D and G are
effects of the consanguineous marriage in A. All this is, however,
merely by way of suggestion. We submit that if deafness in one
generation may be followed by deafness two or even three
generations later, while the tendency to deafness exists, but does
not appear, in the intermediate generations, it is only logical to
inquire if deafness in the first discoverable instance in a family
may not be caused by consanguinity, the effect of which is not seen
for two or three generations in a similar manner. Moreover it is
probable that consanguinity in parents or grandparents may often be
denied. An exhaustive investigation along these lines is desirable,
for we believe that congenital deafness would be proved to be due
to consanguinity in hearing people, if the search were pushed far
enough back and the truth were told, in a far greater percentage of
cases than is now suspected. This is not disproved by quoting
numbers of cases where no deafness follows consanguinity in any
generation, for resulting weakness may be shown (where it exists)
in many other ways than by deafness.

This theory receives support from the statistics quoted by Dr
Kerr Love (Deaf Mutism, p. 132), where the percentage of
defective children resulting from the consanguineous marriages of
hearing people increases in almost exact proportion to the nearness
of affinity of the parents. It is further borne out by in 408 765
792 977 981 981 1003 1052 107 4 1333 ?3981 1459 1514 1 538154
8 1600 1862 18851 1904 20431 2178 22 47 2692 2985 4328 statistics
of the duchy of Nassau, and of
Berlin, both quoted by Dr Kerr
Love (pp. 119, 120). These show r deaf person in 1397 Roman
Catholics, 1101 Evangelicals and 508 Jews in the former case, and r in 3000 Roman
Catholics, 2000 Protestants and 400 Jews in the latter. When we are told that " Roman
Catholics prohibit marriages between persons who are near blood
relations, Protestants view such marriages as permissible, and Jews
encourage intermarriage with blood relations," these figures become
suggestive. We find the same greater tendency to deafness in
thinly-populated and out-of-the-way districts and countries where,
owing to the circle of acquaintances being limited, people are more
likely to marry relations.

NUMBER OF

MARRIAGES.

NUMBER OF

CHILDREN.

PERCENTAGE.

MARRIAGES OF THE

5

'

DEAF.

Total.

¢,

Total.

Deaf.

? 5

?.

' ,<!-.

G3 ,-,

cd +; 0

cn

Q 7,

U

One or both partners

deaf

3078

300

6782

588

9.7

8.6

Both partners deaf .

2 377

220

5072

429

9.2

8.4

One partner deaf, the

other hearing .

599

75

1 53 2

151

12.5

9.8

One or both partners

congenitally deaf .

1 477

1 94

3401

413

13.1

12.1

One or both partners

adventitiously deaf

2212

124

47 01

1 99

5.6

4'2

Both partners con-

genitally deaf .

335

8 3

779

202

2 4.7

25.9

One partner congenit-

ally deaf, the other

adventitiously deaf

814

66

1820

119

8.1

6.5

Both partners adven-

titiously deaf .

8 45

30

1720

4 0

3'5

2.3

One partner congenit-

ally deaf, the other

hearing.

191

28

528

63

14.6

II.9

One partner adven-

titiously deaf, the

other hearing .

310

10

713

16

3.2

2.2

Both partners had

deaf relatives .

437

103

1060

222

23.5

20.9

One partner had deaf

,relatives, the other

had no

541

36

1210

78

6.6

6.4

Neither partner had

deaf relatives .

471

II

1044

13

2.3

I.2

Both partners con-

genitally deaf; both

had deaf relatives

172

49

429

130

28.4

30.3

Both partners con-

genitally deaf; one

had deaf relatives,

the other had not .

49

8

105

21

16.3

20.0

Both partners congen-

itally deaf; neither

had deaf relatives

14

I

24

I

7.1

4.1

Both partners ad-

ventitiously deaf;

both had deaf re-

latives

57

10

114

II

17.5

9.6

Both partners adven-

titiously deaf; one

had deaf relatives,

the other had not .

167

7

357

pp

4.1

2.8

Both partners ad-

ventitiously deaf;

neither had deaf

relatives. .

284

2

550

2

0.7

0'3

Partners consanguine-

ous

31

14

100

30

45.1

30.0

With regard to the question of marriages of the deaf, Professor
Edward Allen Fay's work is so complete that the results of his six
years' labour are particularly worthy of notice, for, as the
introduction states, the book is a ' ` collection of records of
marriages of the deaf far larger than all previous collections put
together," and it deals in detail with 4471 such marriages. The
summary of statistics is as follows (Marriages of the Deaf in
America, p. 134): One point deserves special attention in the
above list. It is that where there are no deaf relatives (i.e.
where there has not been a history of deafness in the family) only
one child out of twenty-four is deaf, even when
the parents were both born deaf themselves. Where there were deaf
relatives already in the family on both sides, and the parents were
born deaf, the percentage of deaf children is seven and a half
times as great. This seems to show that there are causes of
congenital deafness which are, comparatively speaking, unlikely to
be transmitted to future generations, while other causes of
congenital deafness are so liable to be perpetuated that one child
in every three is deaf. We conjecture that one original cause of
congenital deafness which reappears in a family is
consanguinity-for instance, the intermarriage of first or second
cousins (hearing people) in some previous generation. Out of the
2245 deaf persons who were born deaf, 269 had parents who were
blood relations, according to Fay. And perhaps many more refrained
from acknowledging the fact. Eleven had grandparents who were
cousins. This theory calls for investigation, and while the
marriage of deaf people is not encouraged, it is fair to ask those
who so strenuously oppose such unions whether they may not be
spending their energies on trying to check an effect instead of a
cause, and if that cause may not really be consanguinity,-witness the percentage of deaf
people among Roman Catholics, Protestants and Jews before noticed.
On the principle that prevention is better than cure it is the
intermarriage of cousins and other relations which should be
discouraged. The marriage of deaf people is inadvisable where there
has been deafness in the family in former generations, but the same
warning applies to all the other members of that family, for the
hearing members are as likely to transmit the defect of which
deafness is a symptom as the deaf members are. We are more
concerned to discover the primary cause of the defect, and take
steps to prevent the latter from occurring at all. Those who have
no dissuasions for hearing people, who might perhaps cause the
misery, and only give counsel to those among the
transmitters of it who happen to be deaf, are acting in a manner
which is hardly logical.

2. Post - Natal. - We have collected and grouped the
stated causes of deafness in those partners of the marriages in
America noticed by Fay. About a hundred and thirty did not mention
how they lost hearing. Any errors in this calculation must be less
than 1% at most, and can make no material difference. In some cases
two or more diseases are given as the cause of deafness. In such
cases where one is a very common cause of deafness, and the other
is unusual, the former is credited with being the reason for the
defect. Where both are common, we have divided the cases between
them in a rough proportion.

Ear disease, proper 77 Lesions of the head 70 Other diseases.
354 1989 There appears to be no cure for deafness that is other
than partial; but with the advance of science preventive treatment
is expected to be efficacious in scarlet fever, measles,
&c.

Condition of the Deaf. 1. In Childhood. - It
is difficult to impress people with two facts in connexion with
teaching language to the average child who was born deaf, or lost
hearing in early infancy. One is the necessity of the undertaking,
and the other is that this necessity is not due to mental
deficiency in the pupil. To the born deaf-mute in an
English-speaking country English is a foreign language. His
inability to speak is due to his never having heard that tongue
which his mother uses. The same reason holds good for his entire
ignorance of that language. The hearing child does not know a word
of English when he is born, and never would learn it if taken away
from where it is spoken. He learns English unconsciously by
imitating what he hears. The deaf child never hears English, and so
he never learns it till he goes to school. Here he has to start
learning English - or whatever is the language of his native land -
in the same way as a hearing boy learns a foreign language.

But another reason exists which renders his task much more
difficult than that of a normal English schoolboy learning, say,
German. The latter has two channels of information, the eye and the
ear; the deaf boy has only one, the eye. The hearing boy learns
German by what he hears of it in class as well as by reading it; the deaf boy can
only learn by what he sees. It is as if you tried to fill two
cisterns of the same capacity with two inlets to one and only one
inlet to the other; supposing the inlets to be the same size, the
former will fill twice as fast. So it is in the case of the hearing
boy as compared with his deaf brother. The cerebral capacity and
quality are the same, but in one case one of the avenues to the
brain is closed, and consequently the development is less rapid.
Moreover, the thoughts are precisely those which would be expected
in people who form them only from what they see. We were often
asked by our deaf playmates in our childhood such questions (in
signs) as " What does the cat say?"
- " The dog talks, does he
not ? " - "Is the rainbow very hot on the roof of that house? "
They have often told us such things as that they used to think
someone went to the end of the earth and climbed up the sky to light the stars, and to pour
down rain through a sieve.

But there is yet a third disadvantage for the already
handicapped deaf boy. He has no other language to build upon, while
the other has his mother tongue with which to compare the foreign
language he is learning. The latter already has a general idea of
sentences and clauses, of tense and mood, of gender, number and case, of substantives,
verbs and prepositions; and he knows that one language must form
some sort of parallel to another. He is already prepared to find a
subject, predicate and object, in the sentence of a foreign
language, even when he knows not a word of any but his own mother
tongue. If he is told that a certain word in German is an adjective, he understands
what its function is, even when he has yet to learn the meaning of
the word. All this goes for nothing in the case of the deaf pupil.
The very elementary fact that certain words denote certain objects
- that there is such a class of word as substantives - comes as a
revelation to most deaf children. They have to begin at seven
laboriously and artificially to learn what an ordinary baby has
unconsciously and naturally discovered at the age of two. English,
spoken, written, printed or finger-spelled, is no more natural,
comprehensible or easy of acquirement to the deaf than is Chinese.
The manual alphabet is
simply one way of expressing the vernacular on the fingers; it is no more the
deafmute's " natural " language than speech or writing, and if he
cannot express himself by the latter nodes of communicating, he
cannot by spelling on the fingers. The last is simply a case of
vicaria linguae manus. None of these are languages in
themselves; whether you use pen or type, hand or voice, you are but
adopting one or other method of expressing one and the same tongue
- English or whatever it may be, that of a " people of a strange
speech and of a hard language, whose words they cannot understand."
The deaf child's natural mode of communication - more natural to
him than any verbal language is to hearing people - is the
world-wide, natural language of signs.

2. Natural Language of the Deaf

We have just called signs a natural language. While a purist
might properly object to this adjective being applied to all signs, yet it
is not an unfair term to use as regards this method of conversing
as a whole, even in the United States, where signs, being
to a great extent the French signs invented by de 1'Epee, are more
artificial than in England. The old story, by the way, of the pupil
of de l'Epee failing to write more than " hand, breast," as describing what an incredulous
investigator did when he laid his hand on his breast, proves nothing. In all probability he
had no idea that he was expected to describe an action, and thought
that he was being asked the names of certain parts of the body. The
hand was held out to him and he wrote " hand." Then the breast was
indicated by placing the hand on it, and he wrote " breast."
Moreover, the artificial element is much less pronounced than is
supposed by most of those who are loudest in their condemnation of
signs, there being almost invariably an obvious connexion between
the sign and idea. These critics are generally people whose
acquaintance with the subject is rather limited, and the
thermometer of whose zeal in waging war against gestures generally
falls in proportion as the photometer of their knowledge about them
shows an increasing light. We may go still further and point out
that to object to any sign on the ground of artificiality per
se, is to strain at the
gnat and to swallow the camel, for English itself is one of the most
artificial languages in existence, and certainly is more open to
such an objection than signs. If we apply the same test to English
that is applied to signs by those who would rule out any which they
suppose cannot come under the head of natural gesture or pantomime, what fraction of
our so-called natural language should we have left? For a spoken
word to be " natural " in this sense it must be onomatopoetic, and
what infinitesimal percentage of English words are such ? A
foreigner, unacquainted with the language, could not glean the drift of a conversation in English,
except perhaps a trifle from the tone of the voices and more from
the natural signs used - the smiles and frowns, the expressions of
the faces, the play of eyes, lips, hands and whole body. The only
words he could possibly understand without such aids are some such onomatopoetic words as the
cries of animals - " mew," "
chirrup," &c., and a few more like " bang" or "swish." The
reason why we insist emphatically upon the importance of teaching
English in schools for the deaf in English-speaking countries, is,
firstly, because that is the language which the pupil will be
called upon to use in his intercourse with his fellow-men
331 175 171 166 138 122 119 37 33 2 after he leaves
school, and secondly, because, if his grasp of that tongue only be
sufficient and his interest in books be properly aroused, he can go
on educating himself in after-life by means of reading. Time tables are overcrowded with kindergarten, clay modelling, wood-carving, carpentry, and other things
which are excellent in themselves. But there is not time for
everything, and these are not as important in the case of the deaf
pupil as language. Putting aside the question of religion and moral
training, we consider the flooding of their minds with general
knowledge, and the teaching of English to enable them to express
their thoughts to their neighbours, to be of paramount importance, so paramount that all other branches of
education in their turn pale into insignificance by comparison with
these, while the question of methods of instruction should be
subservient to these main ends. Too many make speech in itself an
end. This is a mistake. Speech is not in itself English; it is only
one way of expressing that language. And we are little concerned to
inquire by what means the deaf pupil expresses himself in English
so long '1234 5678 9 ' Observations. - People speak of `
manual signs.' Of course there are signs which are made with the
hands only, as there are others which are labial, &c. But the
sign language is comprehensive, and at times the whole frame is
engaged in its use. A late American teacher could and did ` sign '
a story to his pupils with his hands behind him. Facial expression
plays an important part in the language. Sympathetic gestures are
individualistic and spontaneous, and are sometimes unconsciously
made. The speaker, feeling
that words are inadequate, reinforces them with gesture. Arbitrary
signs are, e.g., drumming with three separated fingers on the chin
for ` uncle.' Grammatical signs are those which are used for
inflections, parts of speech, or letters as in the manual alphabet, and some numerical
signs, though other numerals may be classed as natural; also signs
for sounds, and even labial signs. Signs, whether natural or
arbitrary, which gain acceptance, especially if they are shortened,
are ` conventional.' ` Mimic action ' refers, e.g., to the sign for
sawing, the side of one hand being passed to and fro over the side
or back of the other. ' Pantomime ' means, e.g., when the signer
pretends to hang up his hat and
coat, roll up his sleeves, kneel on his board, guide the saw with
his thumb, saw through, wipe his forehead, &c." Illustrations
of one style of numerical signs
are given below.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 FIG. I.

as he does so express himself, whether by speech or writing or
finger-spelling--for if he can
finger-spell he can write. It is not the mere fact that he can make
certain sounds or write certain letters or form the alphabet on his
hands that should signify. It is the actual language that he uses,
whatever be the means, and the thoughts that are enshrined in the
language, that should be our criterion when judging of his
education.

The importance of English is insisted upon because to place the
deaf child in touch with his English-speaking fellow-men we must
teach him their language, and also because he can thereby educate
himself by means of books if, and when, he has a sufficient command
of that language. The reason is not because the vernacular is actually
superior to signs as a means of conversation. The sign language is
quite equal to the vernacular as a means of expression. The former
is as much our mother tongue, if we may say so, as the latter; we
used one language as soon as the other, in our earliest infancy;
and, after a lifelong experience of both, we affirm that signs are
a more beautiful language than English, and provide possibilities
of a wealth of expression which English does not possess, and which
probably no other language possesses.

That others whose knowledge of signs is lifelong hold similar
opinions is shown by the following extract from The Deaf and their
Possibilities, by Dr Gallaudet: " Thinking that the question
may arise in the minds of some, ` Does the sign language give the
deaf, when used in public addresses, all that speech affords to the
hearing? ' I will say that my experience and observation lead me to answer with a decided
affirmative. On occasions almost without number it has been my
privilege to interpret, through signs to the deaf, addresses given
in speech; I have addressed hundreds of assemblages of deaf persons
in the college, in schools I have visited, and elsewhere, using
signs for the original expression of thought; I have seen many more
lectures and public debates given originally in signs; I have seen
conventions of deaf-mutes in which no word was spoken, and yet all
the forms of parliamentary proceedings were observed, and the most
earnest, and even excited,
discussions were carried on. I have seen the ordinances of religion
administered, and the full service of the Church rendered in signs;
and all this with the assurance growing out of my complete
understanding of the language - a knowledge which dates from my
earliest childhood - that for all the purposes enumerated gestural
expression is in no respect inferior, and is in many respects
superior, to oral, verbal utterance as a means of communicating
ideas." The following is an analysis of the sign language given by
Mr Payne of the Swansea Institution, together with his explanatory
notes: - Analysis of the Sign Language. I. Facial
expression.

Units are signified with the palm turned inwards; tens with the palm turned outwards; hundreds with the fingers
downwards; thousands with the left hand to the right shoulder; millions with the
hand near the forehead. For 12, sign to outwards and 2 inwards, and
so on up to 19.21 = 2 outwards, I inwards, and so on up to 30.146 =
I downwards, 4 outwards, 6 inwards. 207,837 = 2 downwards,
7 inwards (both at shoulder), 8 downwards, 3 outwards, 7
inwards. 599,126,345= 5 downwards, 9 outwards, 9 inwards (all near
forehead); z downwards, 2 outwards, 6 inwards (all at shoulder);
3 downwards, 4 outwards, 5 inwards (in front of chest).

Only the third, and a few of the second, subdivision of the
second section of the above classes of signs can be excluded when
talking of signs as being the deaf-mute's natural language. In fact
we hesitate to call representative gesture - e.g. the horns and
action of milking for " cow," the smelling at something grasped in
the hand for " flower,"
&c. - conventional at all, except when shortened as the usual'
sign for " cat " is, for instance,
from the sign for whiskers plus stroking the fur on back and tail plus the
action of a cat licking its paw and washing its face, to the sign
for whiskers only.

The deaf child expresses himself in the sign language of his own
accord. The supposition that
in manual or combined schools generally they "teach them signs" is
incorrect, except that perhaps occasionally a few pupils may be
drilled and their signs polished for a dramatic rendering of a poem
at a prize distribution or public meeting, which is no more "
teaching them signs " than training hearing children to recite the
same poem orally and polishing their rendering of it is teaching
them English. If the deaf boy meets with some one who will use
gesture to him, a new sign will be invented as occasion requires by
one or other to express a new idea, and if it be a good one is
tacitly adopted to express that idea, and so an entire language is
built up. It follows that in different localities signs will differ
to a great extent, but one who is accustomed to signing can readily
see the connexion and understand what is meant even when the signs
are partly novel to him. We are sometimes asked if we can make a
deaf child understand abstract ideas by this language. Our answer
is that we can, if a hearing child of no greater age and
intelligence can understand the same ideas in English. Signs are
particularly the best means of conveying religious truths to the
deaf. If you wish to appeal to him, to impress him, to reach his heart and his sympathies (and,
incidentally, to offer the best possible substitute for music), use his own eloquent
language of signs. We have conversed by signs with deaf people from
all parts of the British Isles, from France, Norway and Sweden, Poland, Finland, Italy, Russia, Turkey, the United States, and found that they
are indeed a world-wide means of communication, Conventional
especially in shortened form.

even when we wandered on to most unusual and abstract subjects.
Deaf people in America converse with Red Indians with ease thereby,
which shows how natural the generality of even de l'Epee signs are.
The sign language is everybody's natural language, not only the
deaf-mute's.

Addison (Deaf Mutism, p. 283) quotes John Bulwer as
follows:- " What though you (the deaf and dumb) cannot express your
minds in those verbal contrivances of man's invention: yet you want
not speech who have your whole body for a tongue, having a language
which is more natural and significant, which is common to you with
us, to wit, gesture, the general and universal language of human
nature." The same writer says further on (p. 297): " The same
process of growth goes on alike with the signs of the deaf and dumb
as with the spoken words of the hearing. Arnold, than whom no
stronger advocate of the oral methoa exists, recognizes this in his
comment on this principle of the German school, for he writes: 'It
is much to be regretted that teachers should indulge in unqualified
assertions of the impossibility of deaf-mutes attaining to clear
conceptions and abstract thinking by signs or mimic gestures. Facts
are against them.' Again, Graham Bell, who is generally
considered an opponent of the sign system, says: ' I think that if
we have the mental condition of the child alone in view without
reference to language, no language will reach the mind like the
language of signs; it is the method of reaching the mind of the
deaf child.' The opinions of the deaf themselves, from all parts of
the world, are practically unanimous on this question. In the words
of Dr Smith, president of the World's Congress of the Deaf held at
St Louis, Missouri, in
1904, under the auspices of the National Association of the Deaf,
U.S.A., " the educated deaf have a right to be heard in these
matters, and they must and shall be heard." A portion may be quoted
of the resolutions passed at that congress of 570 of the
best-informed deaf the world has ever seen, at least scores, if not
hundreds, of them holding degrees, and being as well educated as
the vast majority of teachers of the deaf in England: " Resolved,
that the oral method, which withholds from the congenitally and
quasicongenitally deaf the use of the language of signs outside the
schoolroom, robs the children of their birthright; that those
champions of the oral method, who have been carrying on a warfare,
both overt and covert, against the use of the language of signs by
the adult deaf, are not friends of the deaf; and that, in our
opinion, it is the duty of every teacher of the deaf, no matter
what method he or she uses, to have a working command of the sign
language." It is often urged as an objection to the use of signs
that those who use them think in them, and that their English (or
other vernacular language) suffers in consequence. There is,
however, no more objection to thinking in signs than to thinking in
any other language, and as to the second objection, facts are
against such a statement. The best-educated deaf in the world, as a
class, are in America, and the American deaf sign almost to a man.
It is true that at first a beginner in school may, when at a loss
how to express himself in words, render his thoughts in
sign-English, if we may use the expression, just as a schoolboy
will sometimes put Latin words
in the English order. That is, the deaf pupil puts the word in the
natural order of the signs, which is really the logical order, and
is much nearer the Latin
sequence of words than the English. But, firstly, if he had always
been forbidden to use signs he would not express himself in English
any better in that particular instance; he would simply not attempt
to express himself at all, - so he loses nothing, at least; and
secondly, it is perfectly easy to teach him in a very short time
that each language has its own idiom and that the thought is expressed in a
different order in each.

Of the deaf child's moral condition nothing more need be said
than that it is at first exactly that of his hearing brother, and
his development therein depends entirely upon whether he is trained
to the same degree. The need of this is great. He is quite as
capable of religious and moral instruction, and benefits as much by
what he receives of it. Happiness is a noticeable feature of the
character of the deaf when they are allowed to mix with each other.
The charge of bad temper can
usually be sustained only when the fault is on the side of those with whom they
live. For instance, the latter often talk in the presence of the
deaf person without saying a word to him, and if he then shows
irritation, which is not often in any case, it is no more to be
wondered at than if a hearing person resents whispering or other
secret communication in his presence.

3. Social Status, &c. - From the 1901 census "
Summary Tables " we gather the following facts concerning the
occupations of the deaf, aged ten and upwards, in England and Wales.

About half of the total number, taking males and females
together (13,450), are engaged in occupations-6665. The rest - 6785
- are retired or unoccupied. Of the former, the following table
given below shows the distribution: - In general or local
government work (clerks, messengers, &c.) .

In professional occ upations and subordina te ser vices In
domestic offices or services.

In work connected with metals, machines, implements, &c. In
work connected with precious metals, jewels, games, &c. In
building and works of construction .

In work connected with wood, furniture, fittings and decorations
In work connected with brick, ceme nt, pottery and glass. In work connected with chemicals, oil, soap, &c.. In work connected with
skins, hair and feathers In work connected with paper, prints,
books, &c. In work connected with textile fabrics .

In work connected with food, tobacco, drink an d lodging. In work connected
with gas, water and electric supply,
and sanitary service Other general and undefined workers and
dealers Total 6665 Among those in professional occupations are a
clergyman, five law clerks, ten schoolmasters, teachers, &c.,
thirty-seven painters, engravers and sculptors, and seven
photographers. Of those not engaged in occupations, 235 have
retired from business, and 245 are living on their own means.
Probably a very large number of the remainder were out of work or
engaged in odd jobs at the time of
the census; it would certainly be incorrect to take the words "
Without specified occupations or unoccupied " to mean that those
classified as such were permanently unable to support
themselves.

In Munich there are about
sixty deaf artists, especially painters and sculptors. In Germany and Austria generally, deaf lithographers,
xylographers and photographers are well employed, as are
bookbinders in Leipzig in
particular, and labourers in the provinces.

In France there are several deaf writers, journalists, &c.,
two principals of schools, an architect, a score or so of painters, several of whom are
ladies, nine sculptors, and a few engravers, photographers,
proof-readers, &c.

Italy boasts deaf wood-carvers, sculptors, painters, and
architects graduating from the universities and academies of fine arts with prizes and
medals; also type-setters, pressmen, carvers of coral, ivory
and precious stones.

Two gentlemen in the office of the Norwegian government are
deaf, as are four in the engraving department of the land survey; one
is a master-lithographer, another a master-printer, a third a civil
engineer, and the rest are engaged in the usual trades, as are
those in Sweden.

The deaf form societies of their own to guard their interests,
for social intercourse and other purposes. In England there is the
British Deaf and Dumb Association; in America the National
Association of the Deaf and many lesser societies; Germany has no
fewer than 150 such associations, some of which are athletic clubs,
benefit societies, dramatic clubs, and so forth. The central
Federation is the largest German association. France has the
National Union of Deaf-Mutes and others, many being benefit clubs.
Italy has some societies; Sweden has eight.

In the United States there are no fewer than fifty-three
publications devoted to the interests of the deaf, most of them
being school magazines published in the institutions themselves. Great Britain
and Ireland have six, four of them being school magazines.
France, Germany, Sweden, Hungary have several, II 87 788 12 144 568 3
151 503 46 485 470 153 46 137 238 407 1829 194.22 and Finland,
Russia, Norway, Denmark and
Austria are represented. Canada has three.

There are many Church and other missions to the deaf in England and abroad,
which are much needed owing to the difficulty the average deaf
person has in understanding the archaic language of both Bible and Prayer-book. Until they have this explained to
them it is useless to place these books in their hands, and even
where they are well-educated and can follow the services, they fail
to get the sermon. Chaplains
and missioners engage in all branches of pastoral work among them, and also try to find
them employment, interpret for them where necessary, and interview
people on their behalf.

The difficulty of obtaining employment for the deaf has been
increased in Great Britain by the Employers'
Liability and Workmen's Compensation Acts, for masters are
afraid - needlessly, as facts show - to employ them, under the
impression that they are more liable to accidents owing to their
affliction.

The new After-Care Committees of the London County Council are a late confession of a need
which other bodies have long endeavoured to supply. Education
should be a development of the whole nature of the child. The board
of education in England provides for intellectual, industrial and
physical training, but does not take cognizance of those parts of education which
are far more important - the social, moral and spiritual. Some
teachers, both oral and manual, do an incalculable amount of good
at the cost of great self-sacrifice and in face of much
discouragement. They deserve the highest praise for so doing, and
such work needs to be carried on after their pupils leave
school.

Education. History.' - " Who hath made man's
mouth ? or who maketh a man dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or
blind ? Is it not I the Lord ? " (Ex. iv. 11). Such is
the first known reference to the deaf. But the significance of this
statement was not realized by the ancients, who mercilessly
destroyed all the defective, the deaf among the rest. Greek and
Roman custom demanded their death, and they were thrown into the
river, or otherwise killed, without causing any comment but that so
many encumbrances had been removed. They were regarded as being on
a mental level with idiots and utterly incapable of helping
themselves. In later times Roman law forbade those who were deaf and
dumb from birth to make a will or bequest, placing them under the care of
guardians who were responsible for them to the state; though if a
deaf person had lost hearing after having been educated, and could
either speak or write, he retained his rights. Herodotus refers to a deaf son of Croesus, whom he declares to
have suddenly recovered his speech upon seeing his father about to
be killed. Gellius makes a similar statement with reference to a
certain athlete. Hippocrates was in
advance of Aristotle
when he realized that deaf-mutes did not speak simply because they
did not know how to; for the last-named seems to have considered
that some defect of the intellect was the cause of their inability to
utter articulate sounds. Pliny
the elder and Massala Corvinus mention deafmutes who could
paint.

The true mental condition of the deaf was realized, however, by
few, if any, before the time of Christ. He, as He opened the ears of the deaf
man and loosened his tongue, talked to him in his own language, the
language of signs.

St Augustine erred
amazingly when he declared that the deaf could have no faith, since
" faith comes by hearing only." The Talmud, on the other hand, recognized that they
could be taught, and were therefore not idiotic.

It is, however, with those who attempted to educate the deaf
that we are here chiefly concerned. The first to call for notice is
St John of Beverley. The
VenerableBede tells how this bishop made a mute speak and was credited with
having performed a miracle
in so doing. Probably it was nothing more than the first attempt to
teach by the oral method, and the greatest credit is due to him for
being so far in advance of his times as to try to instruct 1 For
our resume of the history we are indebted solely to Arnold
(Education of Deaf Mutes, Teachers' Manual) as far as the
date of the founding of the Old Kent Road Institution.

his pupil at all. Bede himself
invented a system of counting on the hands; and also a " manual
speech," as he called it, - using his numerals to indicate the
number of the letter of the alphabet; thus, the sign for " seven "
would also signify the letter " g," and so forth. But we do not
know that he intended this alphabet for the use of the deaf.

It is not until the 16th century that we hear much of anybody
else who was interested in the deaf, but at this date we find
Girolamo Cardan stating that
they can be instructed by writing, after they have been shown the
signification of words, since their mental power is unaffected by
their inability to hear.

Pedro Ponce de Leon (c.
1520-1584), a Spanish Benedictinemonk, is more worthy of notice, as he, to use his
own words, taught the deaf " to speak, read, write, reckon, pray,
serve at the altar, know
Christian doctrine, and confess with a loud voice." Some he taught
languages and science. That he was successful was proved by other
witness than his own, for
Panduro, Valles and de Morales all give details of his work, the
last-named giving an account by one of Ponce's pupils of his
education. De Morales says further that Ponce de Leon
addressed his scholars either by signs or writing, and that the
reply came by speech. It appears that this master committed his
methods to writing. Though this work is lost it is probable that
his system was put into practice by Juan Pablo Bonet. This
Spaniard successfully instructed a brother of his master the constable of Castile, who had lost hearing
at the age of two. His method corresponded in a great measure to
that which is now called the combined system, for, in the work
which he wrote, he shows how the deaf can be taught to speak by
reducing the letters to their phonetic value, and also urges that
finger-spelling and writing should be used. The connexion between
all three, he goes on to say, should be shown the pupils, but the
manual alphabet should be mastered first. Nouns he taught by
pointing to the objects they represented; verbs he expressed by
pantomime; while the value of prepositions, adverbs and
interjections, as well as the tenses of verbs, he believed could be
learnt by repeated use. The pupil should be educated by
interrogation, conversation, and carefully graduated reading. The
success of Bonet's endeavours are borne witness to by Sir Kenelm Digby, who met
the teacher at Madrid.

Bonifacio's work on signs, in which he uses every part of the
body for conversational purposes, may be mentioned before passing
to John Bulwer, the first Englishman to treat of teaching the deaf.
In his three works, Philocophus, Chirologia and
Chironomia, he enlarges upon Sir Kenelm Digby's account,
and argues about the possibility of teaching the deaf by speech.
But he seems to have had no practical experience of the art.

Dr John Wallis is
more important, though it has been disputed whether he was not
indebted to his predecessors for some ideas. He taught by writing
and articulation.
He took the trouble to classify to a certain extent the various
sounds, dividing both vowels and " open " consonants into
gutturals, palatals and labials. The " closed " consonants he
subdivided into mutes, semi-mutes and semi-vowels. Language, Wallis
maintained, should be taught when the pupil had first learned to
write, and the written characters should be associated with some
sort of manual alphabet. Names of things should be given first, and
then the parts of those things, e.g. " body " first, and
then, under that, " head," " arm," " foot," &c. Then the
singular and plural should be given, then possessives and
possessive pronouns, followed by particles, other pronouns and
adjectives. These should be followed by the copulative verb; after
which should come the intransitive verb and its nominative in the
different tenses, and the transitive with its object in the same
way. Lastly, prepositions and conjunctions should be taught. All
this, Wallis held, ought to be done by writing as well as signing,
for he did not lose sight of the fact that " we must learn the
pupil's language in order to teach him ours." Dr William Holder,
who read an essay before the Royal Society in 1668-1669 on the
" Elements of Speech," added an appendix concerning the deaf and
dumb. He describes the organs of speech and their positions in
articulation, suggesting teaching the pupil the sounds in order of
simplicity, though he held that he must learn to write first.
Afterwards the pupil must associate the letters with a manual
alphabet. Holder notices that dumbness is due to the want of
hearing, and therefore speech can be acquired through watching the
lips, though he admits the task is a laborious one. He also urges
the teacher to be patient and to make the work as interesting to
the pupil as possible. Command of language, he maintains, will
enable the deaf person to read a sentence from the lips if he gets
most of the words; for he will be able to supply those he did not
see, from his knowledge of English.

Johan Baptist van Helmont treated of the work of the vocal
organs. Amman says that Van Helmont had discovered a manual
alphabet and used it to instruct the deaf, but had not attained
very good results.

George Sibscota published a work in 1670 called the Deaf and
Dumb Man's Discourse, in which he contradicts Aristotle's
opinion that people are dumb because of defects in the vocal
organs; for they are, he believed, dumb because never taught to
speak. They can gain knowledge by sight, he maintained; can write,
converse by signs, speak and lip-read. Ramirez de Carrion also taught the deaf
to speak and write, as did P. Lana Terzi.

About George
Dalgarno more is known. He wrote, in 1680, his
Didascalocophus, or Deaf-Mute's Preceptor, in which he makes the mistake
of saying that the deaf have the advantage over the blind in
opportunities for learning language. The deaf can, in his opinion,
be taught to speak, and also to read the lips if the letters are
very distinct. They ought to read, write and spell on the fingers
constantly, but use no signs. Substantives are to be taught by
associating them with the things they represent; then adjectives
should be joined to them. Verbs should be taught by suiting the
action to the words, and associating the pronouns with them. Other
parts of speech should be given as opportunities of explaining them
present themselves. Dalgarno invented an alphabet, the letters
being on the joints of the
fingers and palm of the left hand.

John Conrad Amman published his
Dissertatio de Loquela in 1700. In the first chapter he
treats, among other things, of the nature of the breath and voice
and the organs of speech. In the second chapter he classifies
sounds into vowels, semi-vowels and consonants, and a detailed
description of each sound is given. The third chapter is devoted to
showing how to produce and control the voice, to utter each sound
from writing or from the lips, and to combine them into syllables
and words. It was only after the pupil had attained to considerable
success in articulation and lip-reading that Amman taught the meaning of words
and language; but the name of this teacher will long stand as that
of one of the most successful the world has known.

Passing over Camerarius, Schott, Kerger (who began teaching
language sooner than Amman did, and depended more on writing and
signs), Raphel (who instructed three deaf daughters), Lasius,
Arnoldi, Lucas, Vanin, de Fay (himself deaf) and many others, we
come to Giacobbo Rodriguez Pereira,
the pioneer of deaf-mute
education in France, if we except de Fay. Beginning his experience
by instructing his deaf sister, he soon attained to considerable
success with two other pupils; his chief aim being, as he said, to
make them comprehend the meaning of, and express their thoughts in,
language. A commission of the French Academy of Sciences, before
whom he appeared, testified to the genuineness of his achievements,
noticing that he wrote and signed to his pupils, and stating that
he hoped to proceed to the instruction of lip-reading. Pereira soon
after came under the notice of the duc de Chaulnes, whose deaf
godson, Saboureaux de Fontenay, became his pupil; and in five years
this boy was well able to speak and read the lips. Pereira had
several other pupils. Probably kindness and affection were two of the secrets of his
success, for the love his scholars showed for him was unbounded.
His method is only partly known, but he used a manual alphabet
which indicated the pronunciation of the letters and some
combinations. He used reading and writing; but signs were only
called to his aid when absolutely necessary. Language he taught by
founding it on action where possible, abstract ideas being
gradually developed in later stages of the education.

We now come to the abbe de l'Epee. The
all-important features in this teacher's character and method were
his intense devotion to his scholars and their class, and the fact
that he lived among them and talked to them as one of themselves.
Meeting with two girls who were deaf, he started upon the task of
instructing them, and soon had a school of sixty pupils, supported
entirely by himself. He spared himself no expense and no trouble in
doing his utmost to benefit the deaf, learning Spanish for the sole
purpose of reading Bonet's work, and making this book and Amman's
Dissertatio de Loquela his guiding lights. But de l'Epee
was the first to attach great importance to signs; and he used
them, along with writing, until the pupil had some knowledge of
language before he passed on to articulation and lip-reading. To
the latter method, however, he never paid as much attention as he
did to instructing by signs and writing, and finally he abandoned
it altogether through lack of time and means. He laboured long on a
dictionary of signs, but never completed it. He was attacked by
Pereira, who condemned his method as being detrimental, and this
was the beginning of the disputes as to the merits of the different
methods which have lasted to the present day; but whatever opinions
we may hold as to the best means of instructing the deaf we cannot
but admire the devoted teacher who spent his life and his all in
benefiting; this class of the community.

Samuel
Heinicke first began his work in 1754 at Dresden, but in 1778 he removed to Leipzig and started on the
instruction of nine pupils. His methods he kept secret; but we know
that he taught orally, using signs only when he considered them
helpful, and spelling only to combine ideas. He wrote two books and
several articles on the subject of educating the deaf, but it is
from Walther and Fornari that we learn most about his system. At
first Heinicke laid stress on written language, starting with the
concrete and going on co
the abstract; and he only passed to oral instruction when the
pupils could express themselves in fairly correct language.
Subsequently, however, he expressed the opinion that speech should
be the sole method of instruction, and, strange to say, that by
speech alone could thoughts be fully expressed.

Henry Baker
became tutor to a deaf girl in 1720, and his success led to the
establishment of a private school in London. He also kept his system a secret, but
recently his work on lessons for the deaf was discovered, from
which we gather that he adopted writing, drawing, speech and
lip-reading as his course of instruction. The point to notice is
that after the primary stages Baker turned events of every-day life
to use in his teaching. His pupils went about with him, and he
taught by conversation upon what they saw in the streets, - an
excellent method; but it is a pity that such a good teacher had not
the philanthropy to make his methods known and to give the poorer
deaf the benefit of them, as de l'Epee did.

A school was established in Edinburgh in 1760 by Thomas
Braidwood, who taught by the oral method. He taught the sounds
first, then syllables, and finally words, teaching their meaning.
In 1783 Braidwood came to Hackney, whence he moved to Old Kent Road, and in 1809 there were seventy pupils
in what was lately the Old Kent Road Institution. Braidwood's
method was practically a development of Wallis's. We must regard
him as the founder of the first public school for the deaf in
England.

It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that a brighter
day dawned on the deaf as a class. With the sole exception of de
l'Epee no teacher had yet undertaken the instruction of a deaf
child who could not pay for it. Now things began to be different.
Institutions were founded, and their doors were opened to nearly
all.

Dr Watson, the first principal of the Old Kent Road " Asylum," taught by articulation
and lip-reading, reading and writing, explaining by signs to some
extent, but using pictures much more, according to Addison, and
composing a book of these for the use of his pupils. From Addison
(Deaf Mutism, pp. 248 ff.) we learn what developments
followed. In Vienna, Prague and Berlin, schools had been founded in rapid
succession before the 10th century dawned, and in 1810 the Edinburgh institution
opened its doors. Nine years later the Glasgow school was established and, under the
able guidance of Mr Duncan Anderson (after several other headmasters had
been tried) from 1831, taught pupils whose grasp of English was
equal to that of the very best educated deaf in England to-day, as
has been proved by conversation with the survivors. Mr Anderson's
great aim was to teach his pupils language, and we might look
almost in vain for a teacher in England to succeed as well with a
whole class in the beginning of the 10th century as he did in the
middle of the loth. He wrote a dictionary, used pictures and signs
to explain English, and apparently paid little or no attention to
most of the numerous subjects attempted to-day in schools for the
deaf, which, while excellent in themselves, generally exclude what
is far more important from the curriculum.

Addison further mentions Mr Baker of Doncaster, a contemporary of Anderson, as having compiled
many lesson books for deaf
children which came to be used in ordinary schools also, and Mr
Scott of Exeter as having,
together with Baker, " exercised a profound influence on the course
of deaf-mute education in this country." " Written language,"
explained by signs where necessary, was the watchword of these
teachers.

Moritz Hill is credited with being principally responsible for
having evolved the German, or " pure," oral method out of the
experimental stage to that at which it has arrived at the present
day. Arnold of Riehen is also honourably mentioned.

The great " oral revival " now swept all before it. The German
method was enthusiastically welcomed in all parts of Europe, and at the Milan conference in 1880 was almost
unanimously adopted by teachers from all countries. Those in high
places countenanced it; educational authorities awoke to the fact
that the deaf needed special teaching, and came to the conclusion
that the " pure " oral method was the panacea that would restore all the deaf to a
complete equality with the hearing in any conversation upon any
subject that might be broached; many governments suddenly took the
deaf under the shelter of their own ample wings, and the "
bottomless pocket of the
ratepayer," instead of the purse
of the charitable, became in many cases the fount of supply for
what has been a costly and by no means entirely satisfactory
experiment in the history of their education. The " pure " oral
method has had a long and unique trial in England in circumstances
which other methods have never enjoyed.

Meanwhile in the United States Dr Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was
elected in 1815 to go to Europe to inquire into the methods of
educating the deaf in vogue there. This was at a meeting held in
the house of a physician named Cogswell, in Hartford, Connecticut, and was the result of the
latter's discovery that eighty-four persons in the state besides
his own little girl were deaf. Henry Winter Syle, himself deaf,
tells how " four months were spent in learning that the doors of
the British schools were ` barred with gold, and opened but to golden keys,' " and how,
disappointed in England, Gallaudet met with a ready response to his
inquiries in Paris. With Laurent
Clerc, a deaf teacher, he returned to the United States in 1816,
and the " ConnecticutAsylum " was founded a year after with seven
pupils. The name was changed to " The American Asylum " later, when
it was enlarged. This was followed by the Pennsylvania, New York and Kentucky institutions, with the second of
which the Peet family were connected. Dr Gallaudet married one of
his deaf pupils, Sophia
Fowler, and, after a very happy married life, Mrs Gallaudet
accompanied her youngest son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, to the Columbia institution,
Washington, D.C., which afterwards developed into the National
Deaf-Mute College. Mr Kendall gave the first building, and, when
the college was empowered to grant degrees in 1862, he retired from
his office of president in favour of young Gallaudet with the
words, " To you more than to any other man is it indebted for its
rapid progress." This college is supported by congress.

The following account of the work done at the National DeafMute
College at Washington is worth attention, as the results are
unique, and are often strangely ignored.

Here is a statement of the course for the B.A. degree: First
year: Algebra, grammar, punctuation, history of
England, composition, Latin grammar, Caesar.

Fourth year: Loomis's Calculus (optional), Dana's
Mechanics,
Gage's Natural Philosophy, Young's Astronomy, laboratory
practice, qualitative analysis, Steel's Hygienic Physiology, Edgren's
French Grammar, Super's French Reader, Demosthenes on the Crown (optional), Hart's
Composition and Rhetoric, original composition,
Hill's-Jevon's Elementary Logic. Fifth year: Arnold's Manual of
English Literature, Maertz's English Literature,
original composition, Guizot's History of Civilization,
Sheldon's German Grammar, Joynes's German Reader,
Le Conte's Geology,
Guyot's Earth and Man, Hill's Elements of Psychology, Haven's
Moral Philosophy, Butler's Analogy, Bascom's
Elements of Beauty, Perry's Political Economy,
Gallaudet's International Law. Even in 1893
we were told that of the graduates of the college " fifty-seven
have been engaged in teaching, four have entered the ministry;
three have become editors and publishers of newspapers; three others have taken
positions connected with journalism; fifteen have entered the civil service of
the government, - one of these, who had risen rapidly to a high and
responsible position, resigned to enter upon the practice of law in
patent cases, in Cincinnati and Chicago, and has been admitted to practise in
the Supreme Court of the United States; one is the official
botanist of a state, who has correspondents in several countries of
Europe who have repeatedly purchased his collections, and he has
written papers upon seed tests and
related subjects which have been published and circulated by the
agricultural department; one, while filling a position as
instructor in a western institution, has rendered important service
to the coast survey as a microscopist, and one is engaged as an
engraver in the chief office of the survey; of three who became
draughtsmen in architects' offices, one is in successful practice
as an architect on his own account, which is also true of another,
who completed his preparation by a course of study in Europe; one
has been repeatedly elected recorder of deeds in a southern city, and two
others are recorders' clerks in the west; one was elected and still
sits as a city councilman; another has been elected city treasurer
and is at present cashier of
a national bank;
one has become eminent as a practical chemist and assayer; two are
members of the faculty of the college, and two others are rendering
valuable service as instructors therein; some have gone into mercantile and other
offices; some have undertaken business on their own account; while
not a few have chosen agricultural and mechanical pursuits, in
which the advantages of thorough mental training will give them a
superiority over those not so well educated. Of those alluded to as
having engaged in teaching, one has been the principal of a
flourishing institution in Pennsylvania; one is now in his second
year as principal of the Ohio
institution; one has been at the head of a day school in Cincinnati, and later of
the Colorado institution;
a third has had charge of the Oregon institution; a fourth is at the head of a
day school in St Louis; three others have respectively founded and
are now at the head of schools in New Mexico, North Dakota, and Evansville, Indiana, and others have done pioneer work in establishing
schools in Florida and in Utah." Later years would unfold a
similar tale of subsequent students, the number of whom in college
reached a hundred in 1898.

There is a normal department attached to the college, to which
are admitted six hearing young men and women for one year who are
recommended as being anxious to study methods of teaching the deaf
and likely to profit thereby. Their course of study for 1898-1899
included careful training in the oral method, instruction in Bell's
Visible Speech, instruction in the anatomy of the vocal organs, lectures on sound,
observation of methods, oral and manual, in Kendall School,
lectures on various subjects connected with the deaf and their
education, lectures on pedagogy, lessons in the language of signs,
practical work with classes in Kendall School under the direction
of the teachers, correction of essays of the introductory class,
&c. But the greatest advantage of the year's course is that the
halfdozen hearing students live in the college, have their meals
with the hundred deaf, and mix with them all day long -
if they wish it - in social intercourse and recreation. We are very
far indeed from saying that one such year is sufficient to make a
hearing man a qualified teacher of the deaf, but the arrangement is
based on the right principle, and it sets his feet on the right
path to learn how to teach - so far as this art can be learned. The
recent regulation of the board of education in England, prohibiting
hearing pupil teachers in schools for the deaf, is deplorable, retrograde and inimical
to the best interests of the deaf. It shows a complete ignorance of
their needs. The younger a teacher begins to mix with that class
the better he will teach them.

In 1886 a royal commission investigated the condition and
education of the deaf in Great Britain, and in 188 9 issued its
report. Some of the recommendations most worthy of notice were that
deaf children from seven to sixteen years of age should be
compelled to attend a day school or institution, part, or the
whole, of the expense being borne by the local school authority;
that technical instruction should be given, and that all the
children should be taught to speak and lip-read on the " pure "
oral method unless physically or mentally disqualified, those who
had partial hearing or remains of speech being entirely educated by
that method. To the last mentioned recommendation - concerning the
method to be adopted - two of the commissioners took exception, and
another stated his recognition of some advantage in the manual
method.

As a result of the report of the royal commission a bill was
passed in 1893 making it compulsory for all deaf children to be
educated. This was to be done by the local education authority,
either by providing day classes or an institution for them, or by
sending them to an already existing institution, parents having the
choice, within reasonable limits, of the school to which the child
should go. School-board classes came into existence in almost every
large town where there was no institution, and sometimes where one
existed. Those who uphold the day-school system advance the
arguments that the pupils are not, under it, cut off from the
influence of home life as they are in institutions; that such
influences are of great advantage; that this system permits the
deaf to mix freely with their hearing brethren, &c. The
objections, however, to this arrangement outweigh its possible
advantages. The latter, indeed, amount to little; for home
influences in many cases, especially in the poorer parts of the
large cities, are not the best, and communication with the hearing
children who attend some of the day schools may not be an unmixed
blessing, nor is freedom to run wild on the streets between school
hours. But it may be urged further that it is difficult, except in
very large towns, to obtain a sufficient number of deaf children
attending a day school to classify them according to their status,
while it is more than one teacher can do to give sufficient
attention to several children, each at a different stage of
instruction from any other. Moreover, the deaf need more than mere
school work; they need training in morals and manners, and receive
much less of it from their parents than their hearing brothers and
sisters. This can only be given in an institution wherein they
board and lodge as well as attend classes. The existing
institutions were from 1893 placed, by the act of that date, either
partly or wholly under the control of the school board. They were
put under the inspection of the government, and as long as they
fulfilled the requirements of the inspectors as regards education,
manual and physical training, outdoor recreation and suitable
class-room and dormitoryaccommodation,
they might remain in the hands of a committee who collected, or
otherwise provided, one-third of the total expenditure, and
received two-thirds from public sources. Or else, the institution
might be surrendered entirely to the management of the public
school authority, and then the whole of the expenditure was to be
borne by that body. Extra government grants of five guineas per
pupil are now given for class work and manual or technical
training. Such is the state of things at the present day, except,
of course, that the school board has given place to the county
council as local authority.

Some teachers have asked for the children to be sent to school
at the age of five instead of seven. This savours of another confession that the "
pure " oral method had not done what was expected of it at first.
First, the demand was for the method itself; then came requests for
more teachers, so that, the classes being smaller, each pupil
should receive more attention; this meant more money, and so this
was asked for; then day schools would remedy the failure by giving
the pupils opportunities of talking with the public in general;
then we were told the teachers were unskilful; finally, more time
is needed. And yet the language of the pupils is no better
to-day than it was in 1881, even though they were at school only
four or five years then as opposed to nine or ten now.

To Addison's Report on a Visit to some Continental Schools
for the Deaf (1904-1905) we are indebted for the following
information. The new school at Frankfort-on-Maine, accommodating forty or fifty children at a
cost of £40 to £50 per head, is modelled on the plan of a family
home. The main objects are to obtain good speech and lipreading and
to use these colloquially; the work is very Foreign
thorough and the teaching very skilful. At Munich those schools. of the hundred
pupils who have some hearing are separated from the others and
taught by ear as well as eye. At Vienna (Royal Institution) a small proportion of
the pupils are day scholars, as they are at Munich, and the
teaching is, of course, carried on by the oral method, as it is all
over Germany. Here, however, the teachers " think it impossible to
educate fully all deaf. mutes by the oral method only. In the Jews'
Home at Vienna the semi-deaf are taught by the acoustic method, and
are not allowed to see the teacher's lips at all. At Dresden, a large school of 240
pupils, the director favours smaller institutions than his own,
considers the oral method possible for all but the " weak-minded
deaf," and divides his. pupils into A, B and C divisions, according
to intellect. In the first division good speech is obtained. Saxony boasts a home for deaf
homeless women, grants premiums for deaf apprentices, and trains
its teachers of the deaf in the institution itself - a good record
and plan. In the royal institution at Berlin Addison saw good
lip-reading and thorough work, though the deaf in the city - as in
most of the schools - signed. The men in Berlin " like the adult
deaf generally, were all in favour of a combination of methods, and
condemned the pure oral theory as impracticable." At Hamburg, again, " hand signs "
were used at least for Sunday service. Schleswig has two schools. Pupils are
admitted first to the residential institution, where they are
instructed for a year, and are then divided into A, B and C
classes, " according to intellect." The lowest class (C) remain at
this institution for the rest of the eight years, and a " certain
amount of signing " is allowed in their instruction. A and B
classes are boarded out in the town and attend classes at a day
school specially built for them, being taught orally
exclusively.

In Denmark Addison saw what impressed him most. All the children
of school age go to Fredericia and remain for a year in the
boarding institution. They are then examined and the semi-deaf29%
of the whole - are sent to Nyborg. The rest - all the totally deaf - remain
another year at Fredericia and are then divided into the A,
B and C divisions before mentioned, and on the same criterion -
intellect. Those in C - the lowest class, 28% of the totally deaf -
are sent to Copenhagen, where they are taught by the
manual method, no oral work being attempted. Those in B class,
numbering 19% of the deaf, remain in the residential institution in
Fredericia and are taught orally, while the best pupils - A class -
are boarded out in the town and attend a special day school. These
form 26% of the deaf, and those with whom they live encourage them
to speak when out of as well as when in school. The buildings and
equipment generally are excellent. " Hand signs " are used at Nyborg, indicating the position
of the vocal organs when speaking, and, as might be expected, the "
lip "-reading is 90% more correct when these symbols - infinitely
more visible than most of the movements of the vocal organs and
face when speaking - are used at the same time. The idea of these
hand signs, by the way, corresponds to that of Graham Bell's
Visible Speech, in which a written symbol is used to indicate the position of the
vocal organs when uttering each sound; it is a kind of phonetic
writing which is to a slight extent illustrative at the same time.
We find natural signs of the utmost value when teaching
articulation, to describe the position of the vocal organs. We give
these details from Mr Addison's notes because it is to Germany that
so many look for guidance to-day, and it is the home of the
so-called " pure " oral method; while the system of classification
in Denmark into the four schools which are controlled by one
authority, struck him very favourably and so is given rather
fully.

In France most of the schools are supported by charity, and the only three
government institutions are those at Paris for boys, with 263 pupils lately, at Bordeaux for girls, having
225 inmates, and at Chambery with 86 boys and 38 girls. In the
great majority the method of instruction is professedly pure oral.
" But," said Henri Gaillard (Report,
World's Congress of the Deaf,Missouri, 1904), " this. is only in
appearance. In reality all of the schools use the combined method;
only they are not willing to admit it, because the oral method is
the official method, imposed by the inspectors of the minister of
the interior." In Italy, again, we are told that the teachers sign
in most of the schools, which are professedly pure oral.

In Sweden, schools for the deaf have ceased to depend, as they
did up to 1891, upon private benevolence. The system is generally the
combined, and in schools where the oral method is adopted the
pupils are divided into A, B and C divisions, as in Denmark and
Dresden, in the two latter divisions of which signs are allowed. In
Norway the method is the oral.

Methods of Teaching

There have always been two principal methods of teaching the
deaf, and all education at the present time is carried on by means
of one or other or both of these. Where there is sufficient hearing
to be utilized, instruction is sometimes given thereby as well,
though this auricular method does not seem to make much headway,
and experience is not in favour of believing that the sense of
hearing, where a little exists, can be " cultivated " to any marked
degree. It is really impossible to draw hard and fast lines between
these means of instruction. One merges into another, and this other
into the next; and no two teachers will, or can, adopt exactly the
same lines. It is not desirable that they should, for much must be
left to individuality. Orders, rules, methods, should not be
absolute laws. Observe them generally, but dispense with them as
circumstances, the pupil and opportunity may require. Strong
individuality, sympathy, enthusiasm, long intercourse with the
deaf, are needed in the teacher, and it is surely obvious that
every teacher should have a full command of all the primary means
of instruction to begin with, and not of one only.

Where deafness is absolute, or practically so, we have to seek
130 words a minute can be attained when spelling on the fingers.
Words are quite readable at this speed.

Although reading and writing are common to both methods, the
manual and oral, as a matter of fact they seem to be used
considerably more in the former than in the latter.

F

K

In the oral method articulation and lip-reading are chiefly
relied upon; reading and writing are also adopted. The phonetic
values of the letters are taught, not the names of the letters; for
instance, the sound of the letter a in " hat " is taught instead of the name of the
letter (long A), though of course the latter is taught where such
is the proper pronunciation, as in " hate." s The
Manual Alphabet.

(One-handed.) P z ?'A4 B C FIG. 2. - The Manual
Alphabet. (Two-handed.) for means that will appeal to the eye
instead of the ear. Of these, we have the sign language, writing
and printing, pictures,
manual alphabets and lip-reading. We have to choose which of these
is to be used, if not all, and which must be rejected, if any.
Moreover, we have to decide how much or how little one or another
is to be adopted if we employ more than one. Hence it is obvious
that there may be many different systems and subdivisions of
systems. But the two main methods are the manual, which
generally depends upon all the above-mentioned means of appealing
to the eye except lip-reading, and the oral, which adopts
what the manual method rejects, uses writing and printing and perhaps
pictures, but excludes finger-spelling and (theoretically) signs.
To these two we must add a third means of instruction - the
combined system - which rejects no means of teaching, but
uses all in most cases. The dual method need hardly be called a
separate method or system, for it implies simply the use of the
manual method for some pupils and of the oral for others. Nor need
we call the mother's (= intuitive or natural) a separate method in
the sense in which we are using the word here, for it is rather a
mode of procedure which can be applied manually or orally
indifferently. The same may be said of the grammatical " method ";
also of the " word method," which is really the " mother's." The "
eclectic method " is practically the combined system, or something
between that and the dual method, and hardly needs separate
classification.

Let us notice the manual method, the oral method, and the
combined system, considering with the last the " dual method." The
chief elements of the manual method are finger-spelling, reading
and writing and signing. These are used, that is to say, as means
of teaching English and imparting ideas. Signs are used to awaken
the child's thoughts, fingerspelling and writing are used to
express these thoughts in the vernacular. The latter are used to
express English, the former to explain English.

ANALYSIS OF THE VOWEL SOUNDS.

Long.

Middle.

Short.

Broad.

Diacritic Phonetic

Diacritic Phonetic

Diacritic Phonetic

Diacritic Phonetic

mark. spell ing.

mark. spelling.

mark. spelling.

mark. spelling.

fat(e) =feit

mee

me mi

pin(e) =pain

far = far

fat = fat

met = met

pin = pin

fawl

fan= fol

nõ = nou

move = muv

nOt = not

tub(e) =tiub

bull = bul

tub = tub

We give two manual alphabets, the one-handed being used in
America, on the continent of Europe with some variations and
additions, in Ireland, and also to some extent in England; the
two-handed in Great Britain, Ireland and Australia. A speed of Here is a chart which was lately in use
Articulation Sheets. Order in which the Vowel Sounds are
to be taught.

Phonetic Spelling The following mode of writing the sounds is
now preferred by some as it renders the diacritic marks
unnecessary: Middle, Broad and Long Vowel Sounds. ar or oo
ee er oa igh ai ew oi ou aw ea ir o-e i -e a-e u-e oy ow au ur ay a Short Vowel Sounds. a o
00 e i u Consonants. h p Ph i s th sh chck 1 r m n ng w b
v d z th zh dzh g These charts are given as examples of those used,
but they vary in different schools, as does the order of teaching
the vowel and consonant sounds and the combinations. The exact
order is not important. Words are made up by combining vowels and
consonants as soon as the pupil can say each sound separately.

Here are extracts from the directions on articulation written by
a principal to the teacher of the lowest class, which show the
method of procedure: " (i) Produce the sound of a letter. Each
pupil to reproduce, and write it on the tablet.

(2) Point to the letter on the tablet, and make each pupil say
it.

(3) The same with combinations of vowels and consonants.

(4) Instead of tablet, each pupil to use rough
exercise-book.

(5) Write on tablet and make each pupil articulate from
teacher's writing.

(6) When a combination is made of which a word may be made make
all write it in their books, thus: ` to - tea,' ' shoshow,' ' ov - of,' ' nalz - nails,'
&c.

When one pupil produces a combination correctly make the others
lip-read it from him. In this way make them exercise each
other.

(8) When they have a good many sounds and combinations written
in their books make them sit down and say them off their books as
hearing children do.

Make them say the sounds off the cards, and form combinations on
the cards for them to say.

Take each vowel separately and make each pupil use it before and
after each consonant.

(i Take each consonant and put it before and after each
vowel.

" The above will suggest other exercises to the teacher.

" Give breathing exercises. Incite emulation as to deep
breathing and slow expiration. Never force the voice. Make the
pupil speak out, but do not let him strain either the voice or vocal organs. Do not
force the tongue, lips, or any organ into position more than you
can help. Do all as gently as possible. Register their progress. ' A ' (as in ' path
'; ' father '). As ` A ' is the basis of all the vowels, being most
like all, it is taken first. It is an open vowel. Do not make
grimaces, or exaggerate. If false sound be produced do not let the
pupil speak loudly; make him speak quietly. If nasal sound be
produced do not pinch the nose,
but first take the back of the child's hand, warmly breathe on it,
or get a piece of glass, and let
the child breathe on it, or press the back of the tongue down. Show
the child that when you are saying ' a ' your tongue lies flat or
nearly so, and you do not raise the back of the tongue. Prefix ' h
' to ' a ' and make the pupil say ` ha ' first, then ' a '
alone.

" 'P.' If the child does not imitate at the first the teacher
should take the back of the hand and let the child feel the puff of
air as ' p' is formed on the
lips.

" ' P ' is produced by the volume of air brought 1 into the cavity of the mouth being
checked by the perfect closure of the lips, which are then opened, and
the accumulated air is propelled. The outburst of this propelled
air creates the sound of ` p.' Take the pupil to see porridge boiling. Pretend to
smoke. ` P ' is taken first
because it has no vibration and is the most simple. The consonants
should first be joined to each vowel separately, and to prevent the
pupils making an after-sound the letters should be said with a
pause between, viz. 'A .. p,' and as they become more
familiar with them, lessen the pause until it is pronounced
properly: ' ap.' " These directions, which are only brief examples
of those given for one particular subject in one particular class,
will give an idea of the mode of beginning to teach articulation
and lipreading.

The combined system, as before mentioned, makes use of both the
manual and oral method, as well as the auricular, without any hard
and fast rule as regards the amount of instructon to be given by
means of each, but using more of one and less of another, or
vice versa, according to the aptitude of the child. It
thus follows the sensible, obvious plan of fitting the method to
the child and not the unnatural one of forcing the child to try to
fit the method.

The following is the way the same principal would teach language
to beginners by the combined system: " The letters p, q, b and d of
the Roman text are to be taught first. The pupils are to do them 9
in. long on the blackboard or tablet first; then trace them on the
frames; then on slips of paper with pen and ink, or in rough exercise-book with pen and ink.

" The whole of the Roman text is then to be taught in the same
manner, also the small and capital script.

" When the English alphabet has been mastered in the above four
forms the pupil may proceed to the printing and writing of his own
name. Then his teacher's and class-mates' names. Then the names of
other persons and the places, things and actions with which he has
to do in his daily life. Every direction the teacher has to give in
school and out of school should be expressed in speech, writing or
finger-spelling, or by any two or all three means. Repetition of
such directions by the pupil enables him to learn words before he
has finished the alphabet.

" All words to be spelled on one hand first; then two. When a
few words have been memorized, they should be written on slips of
paper, then in the exercise-books and dated. After this there
should be further repetition and exercising. The same course should
be taken with phrases and short sentences. Names of persons should
be written on cards and slips of paper and pinned to the chest. Names of things to be
affixed to them, or written on them. Names of apartments on cards
laid in the rooms. Where the object is not available use a picture,
or draw the outline and make pupil do the same. Never nod, or
point, or jerk the finger, or use any other gesture, without
previously giving the word, and when the latter is understood drop
the gesture altogether.

" Never allow a single mistake to pass uncorrected, and make
pupils always learn the corrections.

" Language should be a translation of life. It should proceed all day long,
out of school as well as in it. If spoken so much the better, but
finger-spelling is not a hindrance but a valuable help to its
acquisition.

" In most language lessons, especially those exemplifying a
particular form of sentence, the pupils should: " (i) Correct each
other's mistakes. Correct 'mistakes' designedly made by the
teacher.

" (2) Teacher rubs out a word here and there on the blackboard
or tablet; pupils to supply them.

" (3) Pupils to answer questions, giving the subject, predicate
and object of the sentence as required, e.g.' A farmer ploughs the
ground.' ` Who ploughs the ground? ' ' What does a farmer do? ' '
What does he plough? ' Also additional and
illustrative questions; e.g. ` Does the ground plough the farmer? ' ` Does a
farmer plough the sea? ' ' Does he eat the ground? ' &c.

" The pupils should learn meanings or synonyms of unfamiliar
words before such words are signed.

" (4) Teacher gives a word, and requires pupils to exemplify it
in a sentence, e.g. ' sows,' ' He sows the seed.' " (5) Let them give as many sentences as
they can think of in the same form.

Manual.

Combined. Oral.

Quite satisfactory result .

65

%

51

%

20%

Moder to success

29

%

41

%

35%

Unsatisfactory result .

5

%

7

%

44%

" Occurrences, incidents, objects, pictures, reading-books,
newspaper cuttings and correspondence should all be used." The "
pure " oral method, as before noticed, came with a bound into
popularity in the early seventies. Since then it has had everything
in its favour, but the results have been by no means entirely
satisfactory, and there is a marked tendency among advocates of
this method to with draw from the extreme position formerly held.
Opinion has gradually veered round till they have come to seek for
some sort of via media
that shall embrace the good points of both methods. Some now
suggest the " dual method " - that those pupils who show no
aptitude for oral training shall be taught exclusively by the
manual method and the rest by the oral only. While this is a
concession which is positively amazing when compared with the title
of the booklet containing utterances of the Abbe Tarra, president
of the Milan conference in 1880
- " The Pure Oral Method the Best for
All Deaf Children "! - yet we believe that in no case
should the instruction be given by the oral method alone, and that
the best system is the " combined." That the combined system is
detrimental to lip-reading has not much more than a fraction of
truth in it, for if the command of language is better the pupils
can supply the lacunae in their lip-reading from their better
knowledge of English. It is found that they have constantly to
guess words and letters from the context. Teach all by and through
finger-spelling, reading, writing and signing where necessary to
explain the English, and teach those in whose case it is worth it
by articulation and lip-reading as well. Signs (7) (9) (io) should
be used less and less in class work, and English more and more
exclusively as the pupil progresses - English in any and every
form. A proportion of teachers should be themselves deaf, as in
America. They are in perfect understanding and sympathy with their
pupils, which is not always the case with hearing teachers.
Statistics which we collected in London showed the following
results of the education of 403 deaf pupils after they had left
school: - That the combined system should show to slightly less
advantage than the exclusively manual method is what we might
perhaps expect, for the time given to oral instruction means time
taken from teaching language speedily, the manual method being, we
believe, the best of all for this. But it may be worth while to
lose a little in command of language for the sake of gaining
another means of expressing that language. Hence we advocate the
combined system, regarding speech as merely a means of expressing
English, as writing and finger-spelling are, and a good sentence
written or finger-spelled as being preferable to a poorer one which
is spoken, no matter how distinct the speech may be. It is no
answer to point to a few isolated cases where the oral method is
considered to have succeeded, for one success does not
counterbalance a failure if by another method you would have had
two successes; and, moreover, these oral successes would have been
still greater successes - we are taking language in any form as our
criterion - had the teacher fully known and judiciously used the
manual method as well as the oral.

The exclusive use of the oral method leads, generally
speaking, to comparative failure, for the following, among other,
reasons: - (I) It is a slow way of teaching English, the learning
to speak the elements of sound taking months at least, and seldom
being fully mastered for years. The " word method," by the way,
starts at once with words without taking their component phonetic
elements separately; but it has yet to be proved that any quicker
progress is made by this means of teaching speech than by the
other. (2) Lip-reading is, to the deaf, sign-reading with the
disadvantage of being both microscopic and partially hidden. The
deaf hear nothing, they only partly see tiny movements of
the vocal organs. Finger-spelling, writing, signing, are
incomparably more visible, while 130 words a minute can be attained
by finger-spelling, and read at that speed. (3) The signs - as they
are to the deaf - made by the vocal organs are entirely arbitrary,
and have not even a fraction of the redeeming feature of
naturalness which oralists demand in ordinary gestures. (4)
Circumstances, such as light, position of the speaker, &c., must be favourable for the
lip-reading to approach certainty. (5) Styles of speech vary, and
it is a constant experience that even pupils who comparatively
easily read their teacher's lips, to whose style of utterance they are accustomed, fail to
read other people's lips. (6) There is a great similarity between
certain sounds as seen on the lips, e.g. between
t and d, f and v, p and b, s and z,
k and g. Which is meant has usually to be guessed
from the context, and this requires a certain amount of knowledge
of language, which is the very thing that is needed to be imparted.
(7) The deliberate avoidance by the teacher of the pupil's own
language - signs - as an aid to teaching him English. If a hearing
boy does not understand the meaning of a French word he looks it up
in the dictionary and finds its English equivalent. If the deaf boy
does not understand a word in English, the simplest, quickest, best
way to explain it is, in most cases, to sign it. (8) The distaste
of the pupil for the method. This is common. (9) The mechanical
nature of the method. There is nothing to rouse his interest nor to
appeal to his imagination in it. (I o) The temptation to the
teacher to use very simple phrases, owing to the difficulty the
pupil has in reading others from his lips. Consequently the pupil
comparatively seldom learns advanced language.

Other means of educating the deaf in addition to the oral should
have a fair trial in modern conditions for the same length of time
that the oral method has been in operation. To consider pupils
taught manually in oral schools fair criteria of what can be done
by the manual method or combined system, when those pupils have
confessedly been relegated to the manual class because of " dulness
" (as in the case of the C divisions in Denmark and Dresden), is
obviously unfair. This division, moreover, assumes that the " pure
" oral method is the best for the brightest pupils. The comparing
of oral pupils privately taught by a tutor to themselves with
manual pupils from an institution crippled and hampered by need of
funds, where they had to take their chance in a class of twelve, and the comparison
of oral pupils of twelve years' standing with combined system
pupils of four years', are also obviously unfair. Reference may be
made on this subject to Heidsiek'sremarkablearticles on the
question of education, which appeared in the American Annals of
the Deaf from April 1899 to January 1900.

The opinions of the deaf themselves as to the relative merits of
the methods of teaching also demand particular attention. The
ignoring of their expressed sentiments by those in authority is
remarkable. In the case of school children it might fairly be
argued that they are too young to know what is good for them, but
with the adult deaf who have had to learn the value of their
education by bitter experience in the battle of life it is
otherwise. In Germany, the home of the " pure " oral method, 800
deaf petitioned the emperor
against that method. In 1903 no fewer than 2671 of the adult deaf
of Great Britain and Ireland who had passed through the schools
signed a petition in
favour of the combined system. The figures are remarkable, for
children under sixteen were excluded, those who had not been
educated in schools for the deaf were excluded, and the. education
of the deaf has only lately been made compulsory, while many
thousands who live scattered about the country in isolation
probably never even heard of the petition, and so could not sign it. In America
an overwhelming majority favour the combined system, and it is in
America that by far the best results of education are to be seen.
At the World's Congress of the Deaf at St Louis in 1904 the
combined system was upheld, as it was at Liege. From France, Germany, Norway and Sweden,
Finland, Italy, Russia, everywhere in fact where they are educated,
the deaf crowd upon us with
expressions of their emphatic conviction, repeated again and again,
that the combined system is what meets their needs best and brings.
most happiness into their lives. The majority of deaf in every
known country which is in favour of this means of education is so
great that we venture to say that in no other section of the
community could there be shown such an overwhelming preponderance
of opinion on one side of any question which affects its
well-being. In the case of the rare exceptions, the pupil has
almost always been brought up in the strictest ignorance of the
manual method, which he has been sedulously taught to regard as
clumsy and objectionable.

2. Blind and deaf

389-

3. Blind, deaf and dumb and lunatic

5

4. Blind, deaf and lunatic .

5

5. Deaf and dumb and lunatic

136

6. Deaf and lunatic .

51

7. Blind, deaf and dumb and feeble-minded .

8. Blind, deaf and feeble-minded

The Blind Deaf. In the summary tables (p. 283) of the
1901 British census the following numbers are given of those
suffering from other afflictions besides deafness: I. Blind and
deaf and dumb 58 9. Deaf and dumb and feeble-minded. Io. Deaf and
feeble-minded .

In addition to these, 2 are said to be blind, dumb and lunatic;
20 dumb and lunatic; 3 blind, dumb and feebleminded, and 222 dumb
and feeble-minded. These are certainly outside our province, which
is the deaf. The " dumbness " in these four classes is aphasia, due to some brain
defect.

Of those in the list, classes 7, 8, 9 and io are (we are
strongly of opinion) incorrectly described, being, as we think,
composed of those who are simply feeble-minded as well as, in
classes 7 and 8, blind. Their so-called " deafness " is merely
inability of the brain to notice what the ear does actually hear
and to govern the vocal organs to produce articulate sound. Many of
classes 9 and io, however, may not be " feeble-minded " at all, but
only rather dull pupils whom their teachers have failed to
educate.

It is safe to say that in some instances in classes 3, 4, 5 and
6 the persons were only assumed to be deaf. Again, cases of deaf
people who to all appearance could not fairly be called insane but
who may have had violent temper or some slight eccentricity being
relegated to an asylum have come to our notice. A good teacher
might accomplish much with some of these described as lunatic in
classes 5 and 6. Finally, classes 3 and 4 may have become lunatic
owing to the loneliness and brooding inseparable to a great extent
from such terrible afflictions as blindness and deafness combined. Probably the
isolation became intolerable, and if only they had had some one who
understood them to educate them their reason might have been
saved.

We are most concerned with the first two classes, and in
considering them have to take individual cases separately, as there
is no regular institution for them in Great Britain.

221 I 00 Mr W. H. Illingworth, head master of the Blind School
at Old Trafford, Manchester, tells how David Maclean, a blind
and deaf boy, was taught, in the 1903 report of the conference of
teachers of the deaf. The boy lost both sight and hearing, but not
before six years of age, which was an advantage, and could still
speak or whisper to some extent when admitted to school. His
teacher began with kindergarten and attempts at proper
voiceproduction. He gave the sound of " ah " and made David feel his larynx. Then he
tickled the boy under his arms, and when he laughed made him feel
his own larynx, so that the boy should notice the similarity of the
vibration. Then, acting on the theory that brain-waves are to some
extent transmittable, Mr Illingworth procured a hearing boy as companion, and, ordering
him to keep his mind fixed on the work and to place one hand on
David's shoulder, made him repeat what was articulated. The
blind-deaf boy's right hand was placed on Mr Illingworth's larynx
and the left on the companion's lips. Thus the pupil felt the sound
and the companion's imitation of it, and soon reproduced it
himself. From this syllables and words were formed by degrees. The
pupil knew the forms of some letters of the alphabet in the Roman
type before he lost sight and hearing, and the connexion between
them and the Braille characters and manual alphabet was the next
step achieved. This, and all the steps, were aided to a great
extent by the hearing and seeing boy companion's sympathetic
influence and concentration of mind, in Mr Illingworth's opinion.
After this stage his progress was comparatively quick and easy; he read from easy books in
Braille, and people spelled to him in the ordinary way by forming
the letters with their right hand on his left.

From Mr B. H. Payne of Swansea comes the following account of
how four blind-deaf pupils were taught: - " We have received four
pupils who were deaf-mute and blind, one of them being also without
the sense of smell. One was born
deaf, the others having lost hearing in childhood. There was no
essential difference between the methods employed in their
education and those of ' sighted ' deaf children. Free-arm writing
of ordinary script was taught on the blackboard, the teacher
guiding the pupil's hand, or another pupil guiding it over the
teacher's pencilling. The script alphabet was cut on a slate, and the pupil's pencil made to run in the
grooves. The one-hand alphabet, used with the left hand, was
employed to distinguish the letters so written. The script alphabet
was also formed in wire for him. The object was to enable the pupil
when he had gained language to write to friends and others who were
unacquainted with Braille, but the latter notation was taught to
enable the pupil to profit by the literature provided for the
blind. Both oneand two-hand alphabets were taught, the teacher
forming the letters with one of his own hands upon the pupil's
hand. The name of the object presented to the pupil was spelled and
written repeatedly until he had memorized it. Qualities were taught
by comparison, and actions by performance. The words' Come with me'
were spelled before he was guided to any place, and other sentences
were spelled as they would be spoken to a ' hearing ' child in
appropriate associations. The blind pupil followed with his hands
the signs made by junior pupils who were unacquainted with
language, and in this way readily learned to sign himself, the art
being of advantage in stimulating and in forming the mind, and
explaining language to him. One of the pupils was confirmed, and in
preparation for the rite over 800 questions were put to him by
finger-spelling. His education was continued in Braille. The
deaf-born boy developed a fair voice, and could imitate sounds by
placing his hand on a speaker's mouth. Two of them had a keen sense
of humour, and would slyly
move the finger to the muscles of their companion's face to feel
the smile with which a bit of
pleasantry was responded to. In connexion with the pupil who was
confirmed, the vicar who
examined him declared that none of his questions had been answered
better even by candidates possessed of all their faculties than
they were by this blind-deaf boy." Mr W. M. Stone, principal of the
Royal Blind School at West Craigmillar, Edinburgh, gives this very
interesting information: We have five blind-deaf children at this
institution, and all are wonderfully clever and intelligent. In all
cases the children possessed hearing for a time and had some
knowledge - very slight in some cases - of language. The method of
teaching is, first to teach them the names of common objects on
their fingers. A well-known object is put in the child's hand and
then the word is spelled on the hand, - the child's hand of course.
The child learns to associate these signs - he does not know they
are letters - with the object, and so he learns a name. Other names
are then given and similar names are associated together, and by
noticing the difference in the names the child gradually grasps the
idea of an alphabet. For instance, if he learns the words cat, bat and mat, he will quickly distinguish that the words are
alike except in their initial letters. When in this way language
has been acquired he is taught the Braille system of reading for
the blind and his progress is now very rapid. This method may
appear very complicated and difficult, but in reality it is not so.
There are no institutions in Great Britain specially for the
blind-deaf, nor are there any in America. I do not know of any on
the continent. Our own blind children here are receiving the same
education as our other children, and in some ways are more advanced
than seeing and hearing children of their own ages. They not only
read, write and do arithmetic, but they do typewriting and much
manual work." Mr Addison mentions two deaf and blind pupils who
were taught by the late Mr Paterson of Manchester, and a third in the same school
later on. Another was taught in the asylum for the blind in Glasgow, though she only lost
hearing and became deaf at ten.

Mr William Wade has written a
monograph on the blind-deaf of America, in the preface to which he
points out, rightly, that the education of the blind-deaf is not
such a stupendous task as people imagine it to be.

" It may not be amiss," he says, " to state the methods of
teaching the first steps to a deaf-blind pupil, that the public may
see how exceedingly simple the fundamental principles are, and it
should be remembered that those principles are exactly the same in
the cases of the deaf and of the deaf-blind, the only difference
being in the application - the deaf see, the deaf-blind
feel. Some familiar, tangible object - a doll, a cup, or what not - is given to the
pupil, and at the same time the name of the object is spelled into
its hand by the manual alphabet." (The one-hand alphabet is in
vogue in America.) " By patient persistence, the pupil comes to
recognize the manual spelling as a name for a familiar
object, when the next step is taken - associating familiar acts
with the corresponding manual spelling. A continuation of this
simple process gradually leads the pupils to the comprehension of
language as a means for communication of thoughts." Mr Wade is right. Given a sympathetic,
resourceful teacher with strong individuality, common-sense, patience, and the necessary
amount of time, anything and everything in the way of teaching them
is not only possible but certain to be achieved. Language, - give
the deaf and the blind-deaf a working command of that and
everything else is easy.

In the New York Institution for the
Deaf ten blind-deaf pupils were educated, up to the year 1901.
Nearly all of these lost one or both senses after they had been
able to acquire some knowledge with their aid. In the Perkins
Institution for the Blind, Boston, five were taught. It was here that Laura
Bridgman was educated by Dr Samuel G. Howe; all honour is
due to him for being the pioneer in attempting to teach this class
of the community, for she was the first blind-deaf person to be
taught. Many other schools for the deaf or blind have admitted one
or two pupils suffering from both afflictions. In all, seventy
cases are mentioned by Mr Wade of those who are quite blind and
deaf, and others of people who are partially so. The most
interesting, of course, of all these is Helen
Keller, if we except Laura Bridgman, in whose case the
initial attempt to teach the blind-deaf was made. Helen
Keller was taught. primarily by finger-spelling into her hand,
and signing (which she, of course, felt with her hands) where
necessary. Her first teacher was Miss Sullivan. The pupil "
acquired language by practice and habit rather than by study of
rules and definitions." Fingerspelling and books were the two great
means of educating her at all times. After her grasp of language
had been brought to a high standard, Miss Fuller gave her her first
lessons in speech, and Miss Sullivan continued them, the method
being that of making the pupil feel the vocal organs of the
teacher. She learnt to speak well, and to tell (with some
assistance from finger-spelling) what some people say by feeling
their mouth. Her literary style became excellent; her studies
included French, German, Latin, Greek, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history,
ancient and modern, and poetry
and literature of every description. Of course she had many tutors,
but Miss Sullivan was " eyes and ears " at all times, by acting as
interpreter, and this patient teacher had the satisfaction of
seeing her pupil pass the entrance examination of Harvard
University. To all time the success attained in educating Helen
Keller will be a monument of what can be accomplished in the most
favourable conditions. (A. H. P.)